Be forewarned: The writer of this blog is an extremely cynical, snarky, pro-US, secular, libertarian, disgruntled sandmonkey. If this is your cup of tea, please enjoy your stay here. If not, please sod off

Tuesday, November 22, 2005

Jihadis terrorise Holland

Holland has a special place in my heart, especially Amsterdam, because it hosted nights of unpralleled debauchery and decadance on the part of me and my friends while we were still in Highschool , but let's not go into details on that. The thing I liked about Amsterdam was the high level of personal freedom it gave you as a person, and yet how this freedom did not endanger public safety in the sense that authorities in countries like the one I am in right now claim such freedom would. If anything it's there I learned that Egypt isn't a safe country -as we like to claim it is-, but rather a secure one, and there is a huge difference between safety and security. Security is when you are fine because they have police everywhere, Safety is when you are fine despite not having the police everywhere. The day when I don't see police officers or soldiers everywhere is the day I will believe that Egypt is safe to be in.
That being said, it's sad now to see that Holland is inching slowly from being a Safe country to being a secured one, and the reason for it is the continued threats posed by the Islamists organizations there. Things are slowly getting weird over there, and if you are the fan of blaming the provocateur instead of the source (Also known as "blaming the rape victim" method), you can blame one woman for it all: Ayaan Hirsi Ali.
A FILM about gay rights should hardly raise an eyebrow in The Netherlands, which for centuries has prided itself as a beacon of freedom of expression and was the first country to legalise gay marriage.But when Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somali refugee turned Dutch MP, started making a new film about the oppression of homosexuals under Islam, the threat to everyone taking part was deemed so great that she decided there would be no faces shown on screen and no end credits and that the entire production team would remain anonymous.
Ali, a "lapsed Muslim" who revealed this week that she had finished the script, lives in a safe house under 24-hour protection.
The precaution is as wise as the courage is extraordinary: Theo van Gogh, the director of Ali's previous film, about domestic violence under Islam, was killed -- repeatedly shot and almost decapitated in broad daylight in the streets of Amsterdam by an Islamic extremist.
Impaled on a knife in van Gogh's chest was a five-page note declaring holy war on The Netherlands and threatening death to other public figures deemed "enemies of Islam".
A year after his murder, The Netherlands is a country transformed. Previously, only the Queen and Prime Minister had police protection, and ministers cycled to their ministries.
Now, many politicians, writers and artists are considered to be in such danger that they have permanent armed guards and are driven around in bomb-proof armoured cars. The Interior Ministry has set up a special unit assessing death threats from Islamic extremists and providing protection squads.
And this just isn't out of paranoia. Stuff already happened.
In the parliament in The Hague, inside the airport-style security, two besuited bodyguards stand erect outside the office of Geert Wilders, Ali's political rival, checking closely anyone who has permission to enter. "I have been deluged with death threats," said the maverick right-wing MP, who has called for the deportation of Islamic extremists.
Across town, police are investigating the shot fired at the window of Rita Verdonk, the Immigration Minister, who has become a hate figure among Muslim communities for introducing some of the strictest immigration laws in Europe, and insisting that Muslims should integrate.
Amsterdam councillor Ahmed Aboutaleb, a Dutch-Moroccan who has said that Moroccans who do not like The Netherlands should leave, is also under permanent protection. "He never gives interviews on that issue," a spokeswoman said.
Amsterdam Mayor Job Cohen has tried to build bridges with the Muslim community but, as the country's highest-profile Jew, he also needs 24-hour protection.
At Leiden University law school, professor Afshin Ellian, an Iranian refugee who has called for reform of Islam and even suggested that comedians should make jokes about it, is hustled through the electronically locked doors to his office by two bodyguards. [...]The rise in the death threats started in 2002 when Pim Fortuyn, a flamboyant, gay, right-wing maverick, called for a halt to Islamic immigration. He complained that police did not take the death threats against him seriously. He was killed not by a Muslim, but by a left-wing activist who said he did it "for the Muslims".
Sigh...
I need some advil migraine. This shit is giving me headaches.

3 Comments:

It's giving most of the world headaches. The lunatics are trying to take over the asylum. I mean, is that guy with a sword in the election photo sane?? I think we need to build plenty of secure mental institutions.

And it seems hightened security is only happening in the places you mentioned (politicians, etc,).I do know that a Dutchie I know is bitching about there being this new law that ppl have to carry their passports and produce them if asked for em, but that's just bitching about the unknown and inconvenient. That law is ancient in Germany, and it's no big deal.

Anyway, obviously there are problems with fanatical Muslims on the rise all over Europe, but I can't say that the Netherlands are any less free than you experienced them.I never saw any of that when visiting, and neither do my Dutch friends.